Dimensions
by Laura x Tennant
Summary: This is the story of Rose Tyler's dimension-hopping prior to the end of series 4. Eventual reunion with the Doctor.
1. Chapter 1

_**Dimensions**_

"I've done this dozens of times already. It's fine. I'm fine."

Pete ran a hand over his face tiredly. "I still don't think it's safe."

"Of course it isn't safe," Rose scoffed. "But what choice do I have, Pete?"

"Please, Rose. We can figure something else out, can't we?"

"Like what?"

"I don't know, but there has to be something. Your mother is going mad with worry."

Rose sighed. "I'm sorry. I am. But what else can we do? I have to go. I have to keep trying."

"Not now, though. Not right now. Come home. Have a meal with us. Be with your family."

"I'm too impatient. This time we might have it _right. _I have to try. Right now."

"No you don't," he countered.

"I do. Sorry." She picked up her dimension calculator device and fastened it to her hip.

"Rose - "

"Pete, I'll be back before you know it." She tried to give him a reassuring smile, and then she turned to the canon and flicked a few switches. "See you later."

"Don't you dare, you're not even dressed appropriately this time – "

"Byeee!" Rose called, and set the dimension canon into motion. She was gone before he finished shouting her name.

* * *

Rose stepped forwards carefully, glancing around her. The three planets looming in close in the sky hinted to her that she wasn't on Earth. She heaved a sigh and checked her bearings, but the coordinate identifiers weren't working properly. Another wasted trip, and this time she hadn't a clue where she was. She didn't even know which universe she was in.

A quick look around determined that she'd look out of place in her long vest top and black leggings; the women wandering around the marketplace seemed to all be wearing a sarong-type garment low on their hips, and little else. Rose took the scarf from around her neck and fashioned herself a sarong by tying it loosely around her waist. It barely hit mid-thigh, but at least she looked a little more at home.

She soon spotted a bar, complete with saloon doors. Very Wild West. She almost smiled.

Once she made her way inside, the chatter didn't even quieten to acknowledge her presence. She liked that – being able to slip in without anyone noticing her, even though one good look would tell anyone she didn't belong. She was the only one in here with her top-half covered, after all. Oh – except that woman over there, sitting at the bar with her back to her. Rose walked over and when the barman asked her what drink she wanted, she nodded towards the woman and said, "I'll have what she's got, please." It was the most pleasant-looking drink she could see around her, but as soon as she sipped at it she pulled a face. It tasted a little like banana and pomegranate squash, something she'd never had a stomach for.

The woman next to her suddenly spun around on her stall to face her. "You're not from around here, are you? Don't worry, no one will pay you any attention. They are used to odd visitors from other worlds."

Rose glanced at her and gave a gracious tilt of her head in acknowledgement. "I won't be here long, anyway."

The other woman nodded, her curly hair bouncing with the movement. "Thought as much." Then she leant in close. "I've met you before."

"I don't believe I remember having that pleasure," Rose said amicably, with just a hint of suspicion.

"Well, things tend to happen for me out of order," the other woman replied, then shrugged. "I dabble in time travelling."

"Ah, I see," Rose grinned. "Well, I'll drink to that." She lifted the drink to her lips again and took another sip, before placing it back on the counter. "That is quite disgusting."

"I like it," the woman replied.

"So. If we've met before, do you know who I am?" asked Rose.

The woman shook her head. "Not a clue. You never told me your name."

"Good. Names can be…" Rose began, then let out a whoosh of breath, before finishing, "Dangerous."

"Don't I know it," the other woman agreed.

"I take it you won't tell me yours either, then."

"Not a chance."

Rose smiled. "That's probably wise."

"Hmm. I will ask you this, though."

"Yeah?"

She leant in close again. "What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?"

Rose laughed. "Just looking for someone. That's all. Wrong place, though, I reckon. You wouldn't be able to tell me exactly where we are, would you?"

The other woman raised an eyebrow. "Elustria Prime. Seventh Galaxy of Trembuda."

"Excellent, thank you."

"And you didn't know that because…?"

"Because my, er, tech is a bit on the blink."

"Right."

Rose eyed the other woman closely. "Are you a Time Agent?"

"No. Why? Do you need one?"

"No, no. I just wondered. You remind me of someone."

"Are _you _a Time Agent?"

Rose shook her head. "No. I'm just passing through."

The other woman's eyes widened.

"What is it?"

"Nothing. It's just that's exactly what you said last time I saw you."

"Well it's a saying of mine. I pass through places a lot. It's kinda stuck, I s'pose."

"I see." The other woman appeared to ponder something for a moment, before asking, "So how long are you staying?"

Rose looked at her device on her hip. "Twenty-four minutes."

"That's a shame."

"Oh?"

"I was starting to like you."

Rose smiled and shrugged. "Sorry."

The other woman let out a long breath then looked around for a second before murmuring, "Would you like to spend your twenty-four minutes – "

"Twenty-three and a half, now," Rose interrupted.

" – someplace else?"

"Sorry, babe, I don't sway that way," Rose grinned.

"You could," the other woman pointed out.

"Nah. But thank you anyway."

"Maybe one day," the other woman grinned hopefully.

"I don't think so."

"Ah. You're hung up on someone else."

Rose arched an eyebrow. "Perhaps I am."

"Well if you decide to be a little adventurous, perhaps a little daring, a little…_flexible, _then call me up."

"I don't know your number," Rose pointed out. "And I don't know your name."

"Well we'll probably bump into each other again sometime."

"If you're lucky," Rose replied. Then she added, warmly, "I'm sure you're lovely, really, it's just, I really don't think – "

"We can be friends, then. I think we'd make good friends."

"Friends who don't know each other's names?"

"Well you can call me River."

That sounded appropriately mystical. Maybe it was even the truth. Rose laughed. "Then I'm Jane." She held out her hand and River grasped it firmly. They shared a chuckle.

"Something tells me that you're a long way from home, Jane," River murmured.

"Something tells me that you are too," Rose countered.

"I don't really have a home," River shrugged.

"Where are you from?"

"Oh, lots of places."

"I had a friend who used to say that. Until one day I got the truth out of him."

"Did it take long?"

"Long to what?"

"Get the truth out of him."

Rose considered that a moment. "Not as long as I expected," she answered eventually. "Still. He left a lot more unsaid."

"He's who you are looking for, right?"

"Yep. Got a little sentence I need him to finish. And also, kind of need his help."

"Anything I can do?"

"Saved the universe before?"

"Plenty."

"Then one day I might have to call that offer in."

"Universe in danger, is it?"

"Well maybe a little."

"Gathering the troops?"

"The Doctor's an army's worth on his own," Rose muttered without thinking.

River lurched backwards in shock.

"What is it?"

"You know the Doctor," she murmured, voice low.

Rose swallowed hard. "Which Doctor?"

"Clever," River said, rolling her eyes. "_The _Doctor."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Liar," River retorted, lips twitching into a smile. "Oh my god."

"What is it _now?"_

River leant forwards and whispered, "I know who you are."


	2. Chapter 2

"You don't know anything," Rose replied calmly.

"I do. But don't worry," she assured her, "I won't say your name."

Rose eyed her warily. "How can you be so sure that you know me?"

"Because I've read all about you."

"Impossible," Rose replied curtly.

"No it isn't."

"How do you know the Doctor?"

River gave a somewhat self-deprecating laugh. "Well. It's a long and complicated story. But I suppose, to put it simply, he's my husband."

Rose's eyebrows shot most of the way up her forehead. "Ah."

"I have to carve into bloody ancient cliffs to get his attention, but at least he shows up when I do."

"Right."

River sighed and sipped at her drink. "How funny."

"What's funny?"

"Both of us. Meeting like this." River shook her head in amusement. "Couldn't write it."

"River. How old is he, when you know him?"

"Oh, somewhere over a thousand years old," River waved her hand dismissively.

"What does he…look like?"

"Not like how he looked when you knew him, if that's what you're asking."

Rose breathed out roughly. "I see."

River pointed at her accusingly all of a sudden. "_You're _supposed to be trapped in a parallel universe."

"That's right, yeah," Rose replied casually.

"I don't suppose you've only come back to save the multiverse and then will go back there?"

"That depends."

"On what?"

"On which Doctor I find."

"Right."

"Don't worry, River. I won't get in the way of your, er, marriage."

River snorted and then arched an eyebrow suggestively. "Ordinarily I wouldn't mind if you did. Only I suspect that I wouldn't be part of the happy reunion."

"River -"

"It's all right," River shrugged. "He only married me to stop the destruction of time and space."

"I'm sure that's not true."

"Isn't it?" She sighed. "Why are we even talking about him? We've much more interesting things to discuss. Your favourite prisons, for instance. I'm guessing that if you travelled with him then you saw your fair share."

Rose smiled. "I did, yeah." A beep sounded by her hip. "Ah. Sorry, River. I'm gonna have to dash. Do me a favour, yeah? Don't tell him you've seen me."

"Wouldn't dream of it," River replied honestly.

Rose chuckled. "Right. Ta. See you around."

"Indeed you will."

Rose nodded and jumped off the bar stool, before making her way to the doors. Just before she exited, she turned around. River was waving at her cheerily. Rose waved back, utterly bewildered, then left.

She was fading away just a few steps after the bar doors swung shut. Just in time.

* * *

When Rose materialised back in Torchwood's basement, Pete was livid. "I can't believe you did that!" he exclaimed, pacing back and forth.

"Can't you?" Rose countered, folding her arms. "Then you don't know me as well as I thought you did."

He glared at her, then dialled a number into his mobile.

"Who are you ringing?"

"Your mother."

Rose groaned.

"She was worried about you," he snapped, then spoke into the receiver. "Jackie, it's me. Rose is back. She's fine, as far as I can see. Yes. Yes. No. Okay. I'll tell her. You too. Bye."

"What did she say?"

"She said to tell you that next time, don't forget your jacket."

Rose laughed, untying her scarf from around her waist and flinging it over a chair. "Right."

"Listen, Rose - Robert and Mickey are on their way."

"Oh for goodness - "

"You shouldn't be dimension hopping without the team here. Carrie is going to go mad when she finds out."

"Well don't tell her then."

"She's the one making all the notes, remember; you'll have to tell her."

"Fine. But I won't be bossed around by you lot. This is my project. And in case you haven't noticed, we've got a universe to bloody save. I don't have time for all this – this bureaucracy!"

"Fine," he echoed testily, then sat down heavily on a nearby table.

"You can go home, if you want, Pete," Rose said next, in quieter voice.

"I'll go when Robert and Mickey get here."

"Where's Owen, anyway?"

"He's exhausted. I sent him home."

"Right, okay."

"Rose!" shouted Robert, as he stormed into the vault. "What the hell do you think you're playing at, going off like that without any of us here?"

"I was using my initiative," she said, through clenched teeth.

"If something had gone wrong and it'd stopped working, you would've been stuck there without us to pull you back," Mickey added, as he came into the room.

"I'm going home," announced Pete, sounding knackered. "But I haven't finished telling you off yet, Rose, so report to my office in the morning, all right?"

Rose rolled her eyes. "All right." Rob was up close in her personal space, now, fiddling with the device at her hip. "Oi!" She swiped at his hand. "I'll get that, ta." She removed it and handed it to him.

"The coordinates aren't working," he muttered irritably, giving it a shake. "Where the hell were you?"

"In my universe."

"But you can't know that."

"Yes I can."

"But the coordinates aren't working!" he shouted.

"Yes, I know it's stopped working properly. But I_ know_ it was my universe."

"How? How do you know for sure?" Robert snapped.

"Because I met someone there who knows the Doctor, and there is only one Doctor."

"How do you know _that _for sure?"

"Because there were no doubles of the Time Lords. You know what I've told you. They were the highest in the hierarchy. They observed the universe. Universe_s. _They weren't part of each one, only the primary, and they were able to jump between the parallels quicker than it would take me to pop to the corner shop, all right?"

"Fine. If you're sure."

"Yes, I'm sure. So now all we need to do is adjust the time coordinates. Right universe. Wrong time."

"And wrong planet," Mickey pointed out.

Rose sighed. "True. But hopefully our estimations weren't far off."

"You should have asked how close we were to Earth."

Rose glared at Robert. "She told me exactly where I was. I can work it out now, if only you'd give me the bloody interstellar maps – "

"She?" Mickey interjected.

"Yes. She."

"Who was she?"

Rose met Mickey's gaze firmly and replied without hesitation. "The Doctor's wife."


	3. Chapter 3

"_What?" _Mickey exclaimed.

Rose remained calm and composed. "She told me her name was River. I don't think she was lying. But I told her a false name for myself, and yet as soon as I mentioned the Doctor, she knew exactly who I was."

Robert looked furious. "You're walking your way across universes to get back to him and he's gone and gotten married to another woman?" he fumed.

"Oh be quiet Robert," Rose muttered, rolling her eyes. "She's years in his future."

"How can you be so sure?"

"For fuck's sake," she snapped, fed up with his incessant questioning. "I just listened to her, yeah? She told me that the Doctor she knows is over a thousand years old. He was only roughly nine hundred and three when I left."

"It doesn't bother you, then?" Mickey asked gently. "That a century later he's married to someone who isn't you."

"It doesn't mean that I don't find him, it doesn't mean that we don't stop the darkness that's just around the corner, so why would it bother me?"

"Because you get jealous," Mickey said simply. "You're not a sharing kind of woman, and – "

"Mickey," Rose said quietly. "We both know that it's unlikely I'll reach my thirties what with my line of work, let alone old age, and even if I did miraculously reach the stage where I go grey, it's still a blink of an eye for him."

"But you and he, you – you – " Mickey floundered for a moment.

She shrugged. "Yeah. But things change. And he can't be alone. He just can't. He goes mad when he's on his own, and I don't mean a little lonely, a little daft, I mean properly, seriously, dangerously stupid. He needs people. He needs her, I expect. And that's – that's fine. It's fine." Then, she turned to Robert and said, "The maps, please." He wordlessly gave them to her, and she stormed out of the room.

"If I ever meet the Doctor," Robert muttered darkly. "I'm going to strangle him."

"He'd only regenerate. Besides, she has a point," Mickey allowed. "He'll outlive her by centuries. It's stupid to think that he couldn't love someone else in all that time."

"But Rose is – " Robert started to shout, then cut himself off.

Mickey stared at him in shock. "Shit. Not you too."

"What?" Robert snapped.

"Please don't tell me that you've gone and bloody fallen for her as well."

Robert inhaled sharply. "Don't be ridiculous. I just think that he ought to show her a little more respect."

"No one in the entire multiverse respects Rose as much as the Doctor," Mickey shrugged. "I was painfully aware of that fact when I saw how he looked at her. I saw it right in front of my eyes, Rob, every time I watched them together."

"And yet he easily forgets her and marries another," Robert growled.

"You heard what she said. It's not like he's moved on immediately."

"How do we know that, hmm? How do we know that he's not moved on with someone else, someone who isn't this River woman? How do we know that we're not sending Rose back to someone who doesn't even want her?"

"We're not sending her anywhere," Mickey said. "She's sending herself. Because we respect her decisions, right? She knows what she wants. And more than that, she knows what she has to do. The universes are counting on her right now, counting on her to find the Doctor. As much as it frustrates me to admit it, we need him, or we're all dead. Do you get that? Without his help, that's it. Kaput. The whole of creation: gone. This isn't about a quest to get back to him so that they can live happily ever after together, and she knows that. She knows that all too well."

"But what if he doesn't help? Say she does find him, and he's moved on. Why would he help?"

Mickey stared at him unblinkingly. "You've never met him, but I'm telling you, if you had, you'd know exactly why he'd help. It's what he does. He helps as many people as he can. Besides, he can't refuse Rose Tyler _anything. _All she has to do is be there with a certain look in her eyes. He wouldn't refuse her. She wouldn't even need to ask him, let alone beg. Even if he has moved on, he won't ever be able to resist that look on her face."

"How do you know?" Robert repeated insistently.

He sighed. "Because it's the same for me. I loved her once. Still do, probably. But I've moved on. I know that there's nothing between us in that way, not anymore. And yet I still can't turn away from her if she needs me." He gestured around them. "I mean, why do you reckon I'm doing all this?"

"Um, for the good of the universe?" Robert remarked archly.

"Yeah, course, that's part of it. But mainly it's to make her happy, and I've no problem admitting that. This idea about jumping dimensions began way before the universe was in peril. I was going to help her get back to him no matter what."

"Then you're a fool," Robert said, slumping against the nearest wall.

"She's not ours, Robert," Mickey pointed out. "Not yours, not mine, not this universe's."

"She's not the Doctor's either, by the sounds of it," Robert muttered.

"Some things are just meant to be," Mickey said sadly. "Meant to go together. Fish and chips. Tea and biscuits. Ron and Hermione. The Doctor and Rose."

"Mickey."

"Yeah?"

"_Harry_ and Hermione."

"Oh no, not this argument again. Look, I've never even read it, but Jake is pretty insistent that Ron and Hermione are perfect for each other, so I don't know that I want to get involved in your heated arguments about it again."

"Fine," Robert huffed. "But Jake's still wrong."

* * *

Rose pored over the interstellar maps for hours, making calculations and drawing circles with a compass to determine just how close she was to reaching Earth. She didn't hear Jake enter her living room until he crouched down next to her with a bag of chips in his hand.

"Mmm, they smell lovely," Rose smiled, and grabbed them gratefully.

"You look tired. Have you slept since you got back from your latest jump?"

"Not yet."

"You know what Owen told you," he reprimanded softly. "You need to sleep afterwards to recharge. Dimension jumping takes its toll on your body, Rose."

"I'm fine," she insisted, around a mouthful of chips. He sat down next to her properly and she rested her head against his shoulder. "I reckon that if we get the time right, then at least I'll be able to hitch a ride somehow if I land a ways away from Earth. Where I was today isn't far from Alscator, which has space shuttles as early as the twentieth century Earth-time, so if I could make my way there with a short rocket ride, then I could get across the three systems between there and Earth much quicker – would only take a few weeks with their level of tech – and then I could arrive in time to find him, and –"

"Rose. Even if you can befriend the right people to make them let you tag along, it's not necessarily the safest way of getting there. Better that we try to improve our accuracy with the space coordinates first. Get you on Earth, then work out how close we are time-wise."

"But if I land on Earth too late, then we risk a paradox. And if I land too early, then I might have to wait years. And I don't have years to wait."

"But you might end up finding the Doctor in a different time. You said he visits Earth the most. Surely that's the easiest way of seeking him out. Then he can take you in the TARDIS to the right time, and make himself forget, if necessary."

"Maybe," she sighed thoughtfully, then yawned. "God. I don't know. This is all so bloody complicated."

"I know, honey," he said comfortingly, wrapping his arm around her shoulder.

"Maybe if we could latch on to the TARDIS' time signature - "

"Seriously, for now you need to get some rest."

"Yeah." Rose paused. "Once I've finished these delicious chips," she smiled up at him.

"Yeah," he chuckled. "Once you've finished those."

"Thanks, Jake. Don't know what I'd do without you, you know. Mick and Rob were driving me up the wall earlier."

"Sorry to hear that," he said, and snagged a chip. "You know they just worry over you. Like I do. We all want you to stay as safe as possible."

She snorted in amusement.

"Rose, this is dangerous stuff you're doing, and what's more, you're doing it alone. We're all terrified. You're far too daring for your own good," he teased gently, dropping a friendly kiss to the top of her head.

"If I don't dare, the whole multiverse disintegrates."

"Well when you put it like that…" Jake assented.

"If I die before I find him, one of you will have to take my place, you know."

Jake shuddered. "Shotgun it not being me."

"You're one of the bravest people I've ever known, Jake."

"Not brave enough for that, I'm afraid. Mickey can take over."

Rose nodded. "Yeah."

"Not that you are going to die," he added hurriedly. "I have absolute faith in your ability to find the Doctor before you drop down dead."

"Ta," she laughed.

"Come on. Finish your dinner and then go to bed. I'll tidy up your flat a bit."

"You don't need to do that."

"It's a tip, Rose. I physically ache to clean up all your mess. I can't bear it any longer."

She rolled her eyes then smiled. "You are a darling."

"I am, aren't I?" he agreed with a grin.

Rose finished up the rest of the chips. "All right, then. Night, Jake," she said, standing up and stretching.

"See you bright and early at work," he grinned.

"Hmph," she murmured in reply, then offered him a small smile in return before making her way to her bedroom.

That night she dreamt of a wedding that wasn't her own. When she woke up, she swallowed down her sentimentality, put her armour back on, and faced the new day with something daring and determined in her eyes.


End file.
